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Tioga County Landowners Win UGI Takings Case at PA Supreme Court
Back in June, MDN told you about a long-running lawsuit in Tioga County, PA by landowners who claim that UGI has taken their mineral rights as part of operating the Meeker Storage Field, an underground natural gas storage facility (see Tioga County Landowners Appeal UGI Takings Case to PA Supremes). The landowners lost the lawsuit in the Court of Common Pleas of Tioga County (trial court) in March 2019. The landowners appealed to Commonwealth Court and lost there too, in November 2020. The landowners appealed again, to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. On Monday, Nov. 29, the Supremes ruled in favor of the landowners. It pays to be persistent!
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The EQT Foundation was established in 2003 as a dedicated resource for financial, in-kind, and volunteer support to communities where EQT works and has a presence. Since its inception, the EQT Foundation has awarded more than $60 million to nonprofits throughout the operational footprint of EQT. That is an amazing number! In honor of Giving Tuesday, yesterday EQT announced the launch of two new giving programs to support the communities of Greene County, PA, and Wetzel County, WV.
Earlier this week MDN told you about a nastygram written by U.S. Senator Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren (see 
According to the experts at RBN Energy, “If there was ever a year that proves NGLs march to the beat of a different drummer, 2021 was it.” Production of NGLs went *up* during the pandemic, not down. Prices have been up, down, and all around. Like all oil and gas markets (markets of any kind, really), there is no one, specific factor or reason why NGL production and prices are doing what they are doing. It is a complex soup of factors that affect the NGL market–a market that’s increasingly vital for Marcellus/Utica producers.
Hilcorp is a major driller founded in 1989 by Jeff Hildebrand. It is THE largest privately-held (stock not publicly traded) oil and natural gas exploration and production company in the U.S. Headquartered in Houston, TX, Hilcorp has over 1,825 employees in multiple operating areas including the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Alaska, and (yes) in the Marcellus/Utica. While they don’t have a huge presence here in the northeast, Hilcorp does actively drill shale wells in Lawrence County, PA and Columbiana County, OH. A recent Forbes article based on an interview with Hilcorp CEO Greg Lalicker proved to be a revelation for us: Hilcorp is not unlike Diversified Energy (or maybe it’s the other way around).
It seems as if Pennsylvania has been on a yo-yo lately. Three weeks ago PA issued just two permits to drill new shale wells. Two weeks ago PA issued 15 permits! And now, for last week (Nov. 22-28), PA flipped back to just two new permits again. What’s going on? Did the DEP take most of last week off for the Thanksgiving holiday? Perhaps. Ohio pulled our region’s bacon out of the fire by issuing 11 new permits last week for Utica shale wells. West Virginia drillers got skunked with zero new permits last week. All totaled there were just 13 new permits issued last week in the M-U, down from 32 the week before.
NATIONAL: ‘DUCs’ are goosing companies’ booming profits – what happens when they run out?; INTERNATIONAL: Shell won’t abandon green transition in face of high oil prices; China eyes substantial rise in U.S. LNG imports; Crude prices drop below $65 for the first time in 3 months; Oil could hit $150 a barrel with OPEC+ ‘in the driver’s seat’.